The Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio's video created by Goldfarb Weber Creative Media invites people to #RethinkLabels and find ways to encourage and support young people facing bias, bigotry, racism, and stereotyping.(screen grab from #RethinkLabels video)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- One by one, the teenagers look at the camera and quietly reveal the most hateful, hurtful, devastating names people have called them. Words like "pathetic," "unloved," "ugly," and the derogatory words for black and gay, their faces wincing at the painful recollections.

"We have a problem," says the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio's #RethinkLabels video. "We label people we don't understand -- and labeling people makes them easier to HATE."

One student said a store owner called him the 'n-word' and assumed he must be stealing, while another boy shares what his classmates sneer at him when no one else is around. A young woman rolls her eyes, then tears up, at being called an "Oreo" and harassed for "talking like a white girl."

Created for the Diversity Center by Cleveland's Goldfarb Weber Creative Media, the video has been shared thousands of times since it debuted before a ballroom of 150 companies at the center's Humanitarian Awards dinner on Nov. 19. Its creators are hoping it ignites a movement to promote kindness and compassion.

Peggy Zone Fisher, President and CEO of the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio

"There were over 850 people at the dinner, but the ballroom was silent. It was really powerful," and some people were sobbing, said Peggy Zone Fisher, Diversity Center president and chief executive.

"These are real kids. These are students in Northeast Ohio with real experiences to talk about," she said. "These are the kids we work with, and we hear these stories all the time, all the time. We provide this very safe space where young people can open up their hearts and tell us things they can't tell other people."

"The idea was to see what the kids have to go through every day, how that forms who they become in life, and how can we change that negative into a positive?" said Tony Weber, chief executive and co-founder of Goldfarb Weber Creative Media, formerly known as Glazen Creative Studios.

"We didn't prompt them or anything," added Ron Goldfarb, the firm's co-founder and president. "We just asked them to think about the worst thing they had ever been called, and the best thing." They set up their video cameras and audio equipment and simply listened to what the students said. Several hours later, they had recorded enough to create a video for every student, but had to distill it into a 4-minute video.

Tony Weber, right, and Ron Goldfarb, rebranded their video production company from Glazen Creative Studios to Goldfarb Weber Creative Studios on Feb. 28, 2014. They created their latest and most powerful video for the children at the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio.

"Every time I watch this film, I think of my late mother, Beverly Weber," Weber said. "My Mom taught us kids that when you see something wrong happening in this world-- an injustice -- you have to speak up. And you have to speak LOUDLY."

"These are good kids, just like your and my kids. And, frankly, they deserve better," he told the audience that night. "Hate speech, hurtful labels -- they incite hatred, they lead to violence. They chip away at a child's self esteem. And erode the public good.

"So tonight, in this room, let's start a dialogue that helps to show these kids and millions of others just like them that they're not alone," Weber said. "Let's rethink the knee-jerk, impulsive, thoughtless things we sometimes say, and find new ways to build people up with our words. The conversation is happening around the hashtag #RethinkLabels, and we urge you to be a part of it.... Imagine what can happen if we rethink labels together."

Zone Fisher chimed in: "We need your support to make sure we can continue these life-changing programs and help the world rethink labels. Please tweet your story, your label, your experience to #RethinkLabels. Help make this a movement."

Reaction to the video has been exceptionally positive, she said. "People are sharing it. They're hashtagging it. They're putting it up on Twitter," she said. "Wynton Marsalis featured the video on his website celebrating Art, Rhetoric & Swing.

"We have had educators call and say, 'Would it be all right to share this with our classroom?' It's such an important message. I want to be sure that my own children watch this. Between Twitter and Facebook, it has been shared thousands of times. Hundreds of people shared it after [former Plain Dealer columnist] Connie Schultz posted it on her Facebook page. "It's just been really, really well-received, and it's been very powerful," she said.

Zone Fisher said Weber came up with the idea for the video. "Goldfarb Weber Creative Media has produced all of the promotional videos for the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio," even though it probably costs them more to shoot and create the videos than they charge the Diversity Center, she said.

One day, Weber told her: "Ron and I have this great idea. We don't want to interview any adults; we just want to talk to the students.